Bernard Lagat's Training Revealed

Read this earlier in the week, worth a bump.

10-mile jog in 55 minutes

Yeah, I saw that. It beats my best ten-mile race time.

"jog"

Right.

If I'm doing the math right, that's equivalent to a 15:30 5k runner going out and doing a 65:00 ten miler. Not really jogging, but not a hard run either.

Interesting.

Yeah, most of these paces seem to match up very well with the suggested paces from Daniels Running Formula.

It's just that he's so damn fast that it's hard to even grasp the paces he mentions, like jogs at 5:30 pace.

I used his 3:47 mile PR, (which is equiv to a 13:04 5k) to get 81.6 VDOt. Suggested paces:

Easy: 5:32

Marathon: 4:47

Threshold: 4:36

Interval: 4:11

Repetition: :56/400m

Monday: Easy 8 in 46, 5:45 pace

Tues: 500m repeats, first 300m @ :56/400 pace, last 200m at :52/400 pace.

Wed: Hills (wouldn't surprise me if these are at "I" intensity)

Thur: same as monday

Fri: 5-mile tempo, last 3 @ 4:59

Sat: 13 in 72m, 5:32 pace.

The only thing that is noticeably off from the Daniels paces is Thursday. It's interesting how slow it is (for his ability). 5 mile tempo with the last 3 @ LT+23seconds, or MP+12seconds.

Like somebody mentioned earlier, the equivalent for a 15:30 5k would be something like:

Monday: Easy 6.8 mile in 46m, 6:45 pace

Tues: 400m repeats around 68 seconds pace first 250m, finish last 150m faster.

Wed: Hills

Thur: same as Monday

Fri: 5-mile tempo, last 3 @ 5:48 pace

Sat: 11 mi in 72m, 6:30 pace

Amazing that training can produce those results. I wonder what his training looked like earlier in life to get to that level.

I remember Bob Kennedy also talking about "jogging" at 5:30 pace.

Correction to the 15:30 equivalent...

Fri: 4.2-mile tempo, last 2.5 @ 5:48 pace.

2013 wrote:

Monday: Easy 6.8 mile in 46m, 6:45 pace

Tues: 400m repeats around 68 seconds pace first 250m, finish last 150m faster.

Wed: Hills

Thur: same as Monday

Fri: 5-mile tempo, last 3 @ 5:48 pace

Sat: 11 mi in 72m, 6:30 pace

Nice breakdown. Notice there is no bullshit easy slogs in the entire week, unless you want to call the recoveries between reps easy work. Bernard is working fast all the time and instead of running "easy" on his day off, he'd rather do nothing. Who can blame him? Beat yourself up another day and have a quality workout suffer? Or take it off?

I wonder if he just thought to himself..."Would I rather run 65 miles of quality, or run 95 miles with some extra easy junk thrown in?

So how many 400's does he do you think? Does he stay with 400's or move up to 800's, 1000,'s, etc...as he gets close to peak?

probably doesn't count his warmup/cooldown. worth 4 miles

total a day. adds 24 miles a week if one rest day.

thus high mileage.

lets see... who else have we "marveled" at their longevity? Regina Jacobs and Roger Clemens come to mind. It is soooo amazing that he just keeps getting better at this age!!

One number: 3:26.

He's not getting better, he's getting worse. What's impressive is how long he's managed to keep his speed, though it's clearly going now.

12:53.6 in 2011; not bad huh? Just last freaking year this cat turns out 12;53. This next year may be his best over 5k; hoping he takes one shot over 25laps. Yeah his speed sucks...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Lagat#section_5

2013 wrote:

The equivalent for a 15:30 5k would be something like:

Monday: Easy 6.8 mile in 46m, 6:45 pace

Tues: 400m repeats around 68 seconds pace first 250m, finish last 150m faster.

Wed: Hills

Thur: same as Monday

Fri: 5-mile tempo, last 3 @ 5:48 pace

Sat: 11 mi in 72m, 6:30 pace

That might be equivalent, but I doubt very many people could run 15:30 off that training. You would have to have TONS of natural talent. I guess that just further illustrates how naturally talented Lagat is.

Dingler wrote:

That might be equivalent, but I doubt very many people could run 15:30 off that training. You would have to have TONS of natural talent. I guess that just further illustrates how naturally talented Lagat is.

Lagat doesn't run 12:53 off of that training. That is his base training before he does any racing at all.

No one is saying that is all you have to do to run your best 5k. There are obviously a lot of hard track sessions involved.

He ran 3:26 in the 1500, and once ran the last 800 of a race in 1:46. Today he's more like a 3:32, 33 guy. Yes, his speed is worse. In 2007 he was a double world champion, and in 2012 he couldn't medal.

He's running well in the 5000, but it was never his focus during his prime.

in his prime 12.30.xx was obviously possible.

he was never going to get below 12'40

in his prime he was ~

47.9 / 1'43.2 ->

3'26.1

4'42.5

7'20.0

12'47.3

27'07.1

but that was off 1500 training & he didn't even like 3k in those days

he had an outside shot of komen's 3k, but even 7'23 wouda been good value for a guy who hated over-distance at turn of millenium

i can't see him breaking 12'50 in his 1500 prime days

maybe if he'd made committment to move to 5k back then perhaps 12'45 was possible ( he did look sub-12'50 shape years later in '06 when he whupped kennster in 12'59 with a mid-51 finish )

then he was more like

49.5 / 1'45.5 ->

3'28.9

4'45.3

7'22.2

12'46.8

26'54.9

last year, i reckon this was a good fit for him

51.2 / 1'4.1 ->

3'32.4

4'49.1

7'26.2

12'49.9

26'50.9

note how his 400/800 speed has slowed over a decade+...

typo

last fit was

51.2 / 1'48.1 ->

3'32.4

4'49.1

7'26.2

12'49.9

26'50.9

interesting point is, mo probably had high-50 speed then/now, so bernie was always at a disadvantage in slow last laps & not favoured to win